student residents

Thursday wrapped up a month of NES graphic and music hacking here at Eyebeam. Students immersed themselves into the music program FamiTracker (seen here), allowing them to create NES music tracks. With graphic hacking and music creation, I think we'll have a handful of new video game creators out there.

Remember, Eyebeam's drop-in program runs EVERY Thursday from 3-6 and the workshops begin at 4PM. This March, Georg Pedersen will introduce students to web design using Wordpress -- don't miss it!

The Eyebeam Action Lab is a community engagement project where creative practitioners working in open source software design and art activism will collaborate with teen communities to design software-based solutions for social challenges. During a one-year period we will complete 5-8 projects.

So now that I've gotten that off my chest. I can let all you AMAZING READERS (2 or 3?...Just Kidding...) out there in cyberspace know what I've been up to for the past few Months. I'm going to compress it because it's been a lot and I don't want to write for hours. So, if this feels short, it's at your connivence.

SO. I've been meeting with Diana every thursday, and we've also been hanging out after hours, wether it's been going to fabric stores and marveling at the zipper section, walking through Macy's criticizing handbags we could never afford, or riding home on the Q, since we live a stop away from each other in Brooklyn. On Thursdays, we've been preparing for our fashion show later this month...I've even learned how to cut out patterns, the right way. It was like the Karate Kid, but with tons of felt and blood....just kidding.

The Urban Wilderness Action Center (UWAC) is a project initiated by Eyebeam alum Jon Cohrs, in collaboration with the Eyebeam Student Residents, Eyebeam education coordinator Stephanie Pereira, and UK-based artist Kai-Oi Jay Yung. The UWAC project includes a web platform uwac.anewfuckingwilderness.com and a day of action where people from NYC, Berlin, Amsterdam and London will design and disseminate projects around the theme of "urban wilderness."

UWAC DAY is Saturday, March 20. Each of four lead cities will host a day of free artist-led interventions that respond to urban wilderness. We will document the day through a live Twitter, Flickr, and video feed streamed through the UWAC website.

Yesterday, we began actualizing our plans for Electrosmog. After a long, scattered discussion about public intervention and wilderness in an urban environment, we could finally agree on a couple things...

Our Goal: Destabilize our relationship with the city through the lens of wilderness. Our Tagline: Building small public interventions that emphasize urban agriculture and promoting urban wilderness.

A few questions to get you thinking: 1) What does "green" mean to you? 2) What is the difference between nature and wilderness? 3)How do you define wilderness in an urban environment? How do you create it?